Balcony - On main floor: master bedroom door to the right, hallway to the front entry with half bath to the left and closet with water heater to the right. Upstairs: bedroom to the right, bathroom straight ahead, another unseen bedroom to left.

French slider in family room

Standing in family room looking back towards kitchen, hallway to entry to the right.

Friday, January 6, 2012

It's a nice neighborhood and convenient to everything. Close enough to the 303 to get where you want to go without having to listen to the traffic. It's in the middle of the neighborhood so no wondering what's going to be built in your backyard some day. Lots of people out and about when I went through.

The house itself is a nice size without being overwhelming. The layout is livable, not choppy. The main family parts are in the back of the house for maximum privacy. There are formal areas, but they're not huge so not a lot of wasted space. The family room is good sized with natural light. The kitchen is open to the family room and has an eat in area off of it. The kitchen layout is workable and the pantry is a walk in.

Upstairs the master bedroom is split from the secondary bedrooms. All bedrooms are decent sized and not cookie cutter squares. All bedrooms have great natural light, one of the secondary bedrooms has two windows.

The yard seems a lot larger than the lot size would indicate. I think the house is set forward on the lot far enough that the backyard is really spacious. The pool is large and appeared in decent shape, although it is empty. There's a nice seating area with raised fireplace at the far end of the pool. There is a shed on the west side of the yard, more on that later.

The landscaping seems to be intact, although dying will be imminent once the heat arrives. This could be a really lush backyard with some water and care.

The bad:

Remember that shed? Yeah, it has a hive of bees living under it currently. I was notified of this by my son who has an intense fear of bees (although the child has never been stung by anything worse than a mosquito.) The boy can peg a single bee at 500 paces, through a closed door and in the dark. Anyway, at first I thought that the colony was dead because there was a ton of dead bees strewn all over the patio. But I was wrong, they were definitely flying in and out from under the shed. It's an easy fix, call in a pest guy and have them kill the hive. I'm 99.99% sure they were honey bees, which means you need to remove the combs once you kill the bees. It's not an expensive issue and once a hive has been removed it's extremely rare for that same area to ever get another hive.

I wasn't sure if this was good or bad, but there's no grass on this property. Previous owners have installed cool-decking from the pool to the shed. Great for parties, not so great for dogs.

The colors. Oh my goodness the colors in this house. I didn't see a lot of damaged walls, but at least the bedrooms & dining room will need Kilz before painting to cover the strong colors. All walls need paint, or a whole lot of bleach, or both.

The carpet (which I think is only upstairs) needs replacing. It's worn, torn, stained and frayed. It's original and it was cheap when it was put in. Having said that, it's only upstairs so the cost would be lessened.

The kitchen cabinets will not meet Candi's requirements :) They are not upgraded at all. They're livable, but they're not long term loves. Counter tops are laminate, in okay shape. They need to be cleaned and the one edge piece where the stove goes needs to be replaced. Again, cost to fix this is minimal. Unless you want to install new cabinets and granite. Also, the stove is missing.

My overall opinion:

It could be a really nice house in a good neighborhood. It needs cosmetics and a few upgrades to meet your standards but it's a nice layout and a good amount of space. The yard is nice, could be awesome. Personally I would remove the shed of doom and replace the extra cool decking with grass, but that's only because I don't mow the lawn at my house :)

The pictures...

Walking in the front door

Looking left towards the dining room. Formal living room is the first room to the very left. Loft is above dining room.

The filthy wall under the window by the door.

Dining room with bayed window

Standing in the dining room looking towards the downstairs bathroom, laundry room and door to the garage.

Under the stair storage area

Downstairs half bath

Laundry room

Standing in family room looking towards kitchen. Formal areas are to the left through a doorway you can't see.

Standing in eat in area of kitchen looking towards family room

Kitchen

Microwave managed to stay although the stove seems to have wandered off

Walk in pantry

Walking up to the loft

Standing in the loft looking out the high windows of the living room.

Walk in closet in loft

Looking into the master bedroom

Master bedroom

Master bedroom/door to bath & closet

Master bedroom, looking through bathroom and into closet

Master bathroom tub

Master bathroom. You'll have to give me credit for closing the lid prior to taking the shot, I'm such a professional ;)

Dual vanity

Separate shower

Master closet

Master closet

Upstairs bathroom

Linen closet by master bedroom

Secondary bedroom 1

Secondary bedroom 1

Secondary bedroom 2

Secondary bedroom 2

Secondary bedroom 3

Secondary bedroom 3

Looks like a little water damage on the far east side of the patio ceiling. Small area, about one foot square.

The base of the shed of doom, where the bees were flying in and out.

The west side yard, two ac units, almost guarantee they are original.

The east side yard, there is a door into the garage on this side.

Standing on east side of yard looking across the pool to the shed of doom.

About Me

I love life, love to laugh and love my family. I strive to find humor in most situations (except when driving behind idiots.) I may not have the cleanest house or the cleanest mouth, but I try hard to enjoy life to the fullest every day.